Virtue Ethics

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A Levels Philosophy unit 3 Mind Map on Virtue Ethics, created by natasha.kacove on 14/04/2014.
natasha.kacove
Mind Map by natasha.kacove, updated more than 1 year ago
natasha.kacove
Created by natasha.kacove about 10 years ago
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Virtue Ethics
  1. Aristotle
    1. Nichomachean Ethics
      1. An action itself is not right/wrong, the positive value attributed to that action. The person is judged, not the action. You are what you repeatedly do. The do-er was more important than the action being done. Virtues can only exist in a social or political setting- ethics is a branch of politics.
        1. Happiness is the end point only, and nver the starting point of a chain of consequences that lead to a bigger goal.
          1. VE is holistic, it treats the person and the action as part of the same whole. Morality is not just a series of different dilemas with no unity to them.
          2. "Good itself will be no more good by being eternal," (a white thing is no more white if it last a long time than if it lasts a day)
          3. To be a human is to be rational.Good reasoning leads to virtues and human flourishment (eudaimonia).
            1. Eudaimonia involves considering your happiness, and the happiness of others.
            2. Virtues are moral and intellectual characteristics that come from habit and education. They should be shiven for, and developed through life, bettering someone morally.
              1. Mel Thompson: 'virtues are not a simple state in which one finds themselves, it is a disposition to act in a certain way'
              2. The Golden Mean
                1. The Vice of Exces---------- Virtue---------The Vice of deficiency
                  1. eg: Fool-hardiness------ Courage------Cowardice
                  2. the Golden mean is individual to us, and as rational beings it is up to us to find our own personal means in every situation.
                    1. To discover our own personal means we need to apply PHRONESIS; practical wisdom. It is acquired as we grow and become independent. We do not only establish our own personal virtue but, we ballance self interest and the interest of others. Phronesis guides you to becoming viruous and is needed for other virtues to be developed, other virtues then direct other virtues and so on, through the stages of phronesis
                      1. Phronesis- Developing- VIRTUE- informs and directs other development- Virtue... etc... until practical wisdom
                    2. Moral Virtues and Intellectual Virtues
                      1. Moral virtues are developed by habit, eg, courage, honesty
                        1. Intellectual virtues are developed by training and education. eg, prudence, wisdom, technical skills.
                    3. MacIntyre
                      1. Since the enlightenment, moral Philosohers (Kant, Hume, Kierkegaard) have fallen into the trap of trying to make morality action-based rather than agent-based. Since this, we have lost sight of what moral wisdom actually means.
                        1. Thus, we are at crossroads, faced with the decision for following the individualist- Nietzsche, or the philosopher that understands the importance of the relationship between community and individual identity, Aristotle.
                          1. Without the practise of virtues, communities collapse. A moral society is one in which the indivuals share commonly held virtues and aspire to meet them. Overtime, these virtues clarify themselves, and improve. the virues must be practical, realistic, and acheiveable. (virtues both sustain and are sustained by communal living.
                            1. VE is focussed on acheiveable goals, not reliant upon crystal-ball consequentialist approaches, or impossible to keep deontological ethics.
                              1. Allows for personal relationships and love.
                                1. STOCKER'S criticism of Kant, not only acting out of duty toards your loved ones, you are not visiting them in hospital because you have to but because you want to.
                              2. VE strives for a collective good, not just an individual good. Focussed on building up the community
                        2. Telos- purpose
                          1. Eudaimonia- Happiness, the senses of fulfilling one's purpose, well-being.
                            1. Christianity and Virtue Ethics
                              1. St Ambrose used Cicero's four cardinal virtues and added three theological virtues
                                1. Four Cardinal Virtues: Courage, Justic, Temperance, Wisdom. Theological virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity/agape.
                                  1. A good action is one that is carried out through the persuit of virtue, with the aim of attaining happiness. When the four cardinal virtues are in balance, a personas action can be good.
                                    1. VE is compatible with Christian Ethics, but also reaches beyond it as it is focussedon what it means to be human.
                                2. Anscombe
                                  1. Modern Moral Philosophy should be laid aside until we have a better understanding of the psychology of moral reasoning.
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